November Music Thread

Yes, we did it earlier this week. No run through is allowed under my teacher’s rule, only once a day(this one just couldnt wait to finish a piece which means sight reading level=low quality play=disaster, she could shape C1 and play the whole piece after 1 lesson). The other day I asked her for a full piece record and she looked at me as if “mom, no!”, so I backed off. So no recording to share...yet. I have learnt to follow her wish since last time we crashed. Our new violin teacher is a concert pianist and she tours the whole December...there will be no lesson. She was sick last week and we only have had 4 lessons with her so far. I now even thinking of JD which I would never have to worry about teacher coverage and she might be more motivated with like minded friends. And if yours is lazy...Kutik, I will give you mine to compare :). I dont really count her work in quantity/hours as all I need is the quality. 25-30 mins very focused a day for either piano or violin then she should make some progress. This rarely happens and only happens when I sit/stand next to her and we need to start on 11+ prep. For now, we are having 2 weeks break with piano which means no music lesson the next 2 weeks and I only have to carry on with my (various) Xmas drinks, this suits me just fine now.

Loose: love to hear your update, and play scales mentally in your head :)

Niggle: best of luck for next week exam, then she is our hero(G4, theory, G5 within only few months)

minimusician musescore.com/groups/discussion-group/discuss/146724 I don't use Musescore so I don't know if any of it makes any sense.

There is this but it seems it only works if the pdf was created by a notation software: www.myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusic.htm

Sibelius comes with a PhotoScore Lite I think? It seems to do the trick but you have to polish and correct errors depending on original pdf.

I doubt any of the above is 100% accurate.

Green, has your DD done the exam now? If so, well done to her! By the way, is playing through the whole piece bad? I'm envious your DD does that because mine doesn't... Apparently it's too tiring.... He's certainly started behaving like a teenager... Still enthusiastic (suppose it's his natural nature) but moody and lazy!!!!

Loose, apparently 'mental practice' is very effective!

Japanese, that is a really solid result, congratulations!

Waffle, you are right (again!). I just looked up the marking criteria for scales and for 19-21 marks it says "musically shaped". I had no idea what this meant, and DD's teacher didn't mention anything.

We will practice all the scales for g5 with that in mind. Not long to go now, exam next Tuesday. The three octave scales are a bit tricky with all the shifting needed. Her teacher asked if she could practice with the piano at home to get the pitches just right, but of course, I haven't had the piano tuned for years and it might make things worse .

When I say practising scales 'now' that slightly ignored the fact I'm on a district line train at the moment. I'm practising them in my head...
Meanwhile, we are going to need a new bass teacher. The current one is a guitarist and says DS1 needs a bass specialist now. I feel like we've reached some kind of milestone but it's sad to change teachers!

Japanese fabulous result for Mini! I'm off to practise the crescendo on my scales now!
I think it happens naturally sometimes hence that great mark for scales - probably mini does it a fair bit without realising.

Thank you so much waffle!

I will work on that with my DS who will be sitting Grade 1 in the spring.

Can't believe I got to grade 8 on two instruments (many moons ago) & never knew about musical shaping of scales (although that might explain my slightly rubbish scales marks over the years!)

drummers it dragged for the first month for me and now we are into the madness of preChristmas (I work for a busy church, it's our most manic season, combined with her most musically/dance manic seasons). Life's flying by in a way I am only just managing!

waffle these are the details I need to learn about how to support her in maintaining her results standard during the switch of boards!

Question- I suspect it's not possible but can any of the software, Sibelius or Musescore ideally, work in reverse to extract a score from a PDF so I could edit it? I've been asked if I can take a score and reduce it to three parts for ease of reading for the singers. I can do it in photoshop page by page but wondered if I can make it happen easier in software (there's quite a lot of pages!). I haven't managed yet in musescore.

In G7 for scales we have to use metronome to play right tempo, (I really have no idea) the fingerings also must correct/playing the scales correctly. Mine could play the scales correctly easily at first however not to the G7 standard and my teacher nagged us about it all the times. Through my ears it sounds ok however my teacher could always pointed out something wrong with her tempo, fingerings. After (loads of ) practice, we did ok with scales compare to everything else in the exam(still no singing). Of course, we wont know it until we receive the result(or the details comment via post). Your DD did extremely well with a distinction though, many well done to her and to mini 2nd.

2nd: sometimes having a completely non musical parents like us is a blessing to them as I have no idea if she plays a wrong note. I could only shout when she plays through the pieces too much during the practice or too fast with the violin. There are often few words which funily enough my 3 yrs old also shouted the other day “slow down!”, “not the whole piece!”— and many times I was shouted back( then tell me how do I play), ofcourse I dont know how. Very often I do see parents waiting at the exam room look super cool/posh.

I told my teacher yeaterday that we will perform the pieces to audiences, go away play something for fun then go back to retake the exam, which might be May next year.

Japanese, sorry I have no clue about musical shape in scales but hopefully someone will come in to rescue as usual. I just wanted to say well done to your mini. Great achievement!

DD received her marks sheet today for grade 1 piano, she had 131 which we are (of course!) happy about.

The comments the examiner made about slips, and a few comments about timing etc. I get and agree with.

But there was something written about scales which I need some help interpreting. DD had 19/21 and then the examiner had written 'musical shaping not yet added'. Am not sure what that means! To be honest, I didn't even know scales could be musically shaped . I remember reading somewhere that the first in a group of four notes in a scale should have a slight emphasis. Do you think that's what musical shaping means?

Good luck for everyone waiting for NCO audition outcomes!

Really? It feels like ages to me. But then I am terrible at waiting for news.

drummers should start coming out next week! Eek... it's come round fast

Woolley, DD2 had a book called 'Twenty-five Fun Monments for Bassoon' by Colin Cowles which she enjoyed playing pieces from.

When are NCO results out for those of you that applied?

Well done Mini2nd, great result!

We have the first exam of the term tomorrow afternoon, bassoon grade 1. Passing should not be a problem but a good result would be nice to boost confidence, clarinet is a week today and dd is still very determined that she should do it.

We have got a couple of fun clarinet books that have been added to the Christmas present pile, does anyone know of any similar for bassoon, haven't managed to find any as yet.

To be honest JD is not full on for us at all. Partly because he was always busy on Saturday attending Saturday school (in my language) since he was very little, which was quite full on due to the heavy homework, but also partly he learns only one instrument at JD so his commitment is relatively light compared with those who learn several instruments there. One girl we know learns four instruments at JD and her day is heavier than majority of senior pupils (she is only 9!).

But you are right herts, we'll try to see the positive side whatever the outcome!

Kutik - I have no idea on NCO auditions as it was never on our radar at the time and now in NYO age range but even if it doesn't work out this year I wouldn't worry. So many great young musicians don't get in or don't audition and then do extremely well later. Especially as your DS will start a new school next year in year 7 which can also be a big challenge it might not be a bad thing to have a relatively relaxing year music-wise (although he is at JD so won't be that relaxing I know! :))

Niggle, I don't know the grade, but they were pretty old (we dig them out for the audition), and a way easier than his current pieces so certainly far from challenging. He could play well without preparation, just a couple of playing through prior to the audition, and could memorise them easily as they were short. We chose those pieces to play it safe so didn't really think he would make mistakes!

Some people told me how well you play at the audition would be a big factor for the NCO as they only really judge by the quality on the day. So I realised there will be little hope for us!

Kutik , what do you mean by easy pieces? Grade 5ish? Could it have been interpreted as enthusiasm..

It may sound we are jumping to conclusions. However, while you may be able to get away with a weenie mistake in a hard piece, isn't it a bit of when it happens in a fairly easy piece? DS chose two easy pieces which he could play well with both eyes closed, simply because it was the last minute decision + no teacher. So they were not challenging at all, and very much a safe choice. Our worries were more of 'are they advanced enough for U11??'. Messing up those easy pieces were the last thing in our mind.